


Tara

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [10]
Category: Ramayana - Valmiki
Genre: Alcoholism, Canon Compliant, Gen, Meta, Originally Posted on Tumblr, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 08:43:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16215518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Ten headcanons about Tara, Vali and Sugriva’s wife and the Queen of the Vanaras.





	Tara

  1. She and Vali loved and respected each other. Vali (most of the time) believed her to be wise and listened to her advice, but his ego and his desire to never back down from a challenge could override his softer instincts at time. When he gets to Kishkindha, he has unresolved anger about her becoming Sugriva’s wife, but he doesn’t want to take it out on her, so he aims it at Sugriva and Ruma. Despite the things he did, Tara does love Vali and grieves both times she loses him.


  1. She often falls into the role of the peacekeeper or peacemaker. Hence why she marries Sugriva both times to secure the succession, tries to keep Vali from fighting his brother, and pacifies Lakshman in his anger. I also headcanon she tries to keep Ruma safe as best she can, and try to save her from her alcoholism. Tara often puts her own needs second, as peacekeepers tend to do, and it eventually leads to her own alcoholism, although she has a better level of control over it than does Ruma.


  1. Tara and Ruma consider each other sisters, and carefully never mention the elephant in the room that is their husbands. Ruma does feel sorry for Tara, despite being content to dance on Vali’s grave, and tries to help her as best she can. They’re both struggling with alcoholism, however, and often two addicts don’t make the best relationship. I view Tara as a more functional alcoholic while Ruma is a day drinker and chronic severe type, and it ends up bringing up emotions that neither are equipped to handle without the benefits of modern therapy and it drives a rift between them, sending them into further misery.


  1. While she married Sugriva out of political necessity, she still has emotional whiplash from believing Vali dead and marrying Sugriva, only to have him come back to life, then have to deal with his newfound viciousness, then to lose him again and have to marry the brother responsible for his death again. It leaves her with PTSD, hence the alcoholism again.


  1. While I think Tara is wise enough to see the justice in her husband’s death, I like the versions where she curses Rama in rage that in his next birth, he will be killed by Vali (the hunter that killed Krishna). Because I do believe she loved Vali truly, and it adds a level of humanity and a “dark side” to her character. I also personally headcanon that during the war she always interacted with Lakshman as an intermediary for Rama and avoided him when she could. After Vali’s death, while she knows Sugriva should follow up on his promise, she’s too overwhelmed by grief and resentment to push him to do so, and so she allows them and the kingdom to sink into carousing until Lakshman comes storming in.


  1. At some point, (maybe when they work together to calm down Lakshman) Angad really realizes the burden his mother is carrying and works to alleviate it. As well as planning for war, he also tries to handle the day-to-day burdens of the kingdom, or at least try to keep petty squabbles from his mother’s ears and ensure she only has to deal with the important issues. Nobody, not even Vali, has ever really considered that Tara might want someone else to play peacekeeper for once, and Angad’s efforts are what leads her to cut down on the drinking, at least before evening.


  1. There are versions where she’s born from the churning of the ocean or an aspara or married to Sugriva first, but I like the version where she’s the daughter of the court physician. I also headcanon she was married to Vali first. I like the idea of Tara being born an ordinary, though somewhat noble and remarkably wise, woman who just wants a normal life with her family but gets passed around like a necklace and suffers for it. She has no great talent for medicine, unlike her father, but she is skilled in identifying and growing herbs, and finds it’s a healthier coping mechanism than drinking.


  1. She and Sugriva both care about the kingdom deeply and find common ground in ruling it. Though they live as husband and wife, some part of her still sees him as her younger brother. Drinking alcohol becomes a normal part of her bedtime routine, even after she cuts down on it during the day. He’s more flighty than Vali was, not as decisive, and she cannot help but draw comparisons. She rarely snaps at him, her intellect checking her temper, but their relationship is more a business contract than a loving marriage, and they both feel it.


  1. When Sita is exiled from Ayodhya again, she visits the kingdom of Kishkindha for a spell. She spends more time with Ruma, and Tara figures she is bitter at meeting a woman whose status as queen has always gone unquestioned. But it turns out that it’s only because Ruma and Sita find more common ground, having both been held against their will, while Tara may have been unhappy but was always willing. Sita’s visit reminds Ruma that it might have been worse, that at least she still has her husband’s and her kingdom’s love, and Ruma’s new friendship gives her something to do other than drink. Tara keeps it to herself, but she thinks sourly that of course Rama would do something as undharmic as exile his innocent wife. She has never quite forgiven him for killing Vali from behind. She offers for Sita to stay in Kishkindha, but she insists on returning to the forest.  

  2. Tara gets to a point where she can wake up in the morning and not have her first thought be of grief or loss. Her smiles are less, and her liver will likely claim her before her time, but until then, every stride is filled with purpose and her hands are never empty. Sugriva, Ruma, and Angada look forward to her presence, the kingdom thrives under their hands, and life settles into a natural tedium. Something she would call soul-crushing were she not wiser.




End file.
